BRETT MARCEL
BIO:
Brett Marcel (b: 1986) went to Catholic grade school initiating an early fascination with religious iconography and ornamentation. At age eight Brett began taking formal art classes outside of school. His experiences as a young adult within punk and drug counter-culture continue to be a strong influence in his thinking and work. Marcel received his BFA and MFA from the New Hampshire Institute of Art (NH) and has exhibited in New Hampshire, New York, and Seattle.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Brett Marcel’s work is vibrant, maximal, and psychedelic. He obsessively alternates layers of painting, drawing, and silkscreen creating auric and kaleidoscopic surfaces that sway between tranquility and disorientation. Quasi-alien ornamentation converges with expressive color, hard geometric design, and gestural mark making. Brett indiscriminately fuses traditional sacred symbolism with pop imagery. He has been heavily influenced by esoteric and tantric imagery, beliefs, and devices, and utilizes the mandala as an organizing and navigational device within all of his works. Brett Marcel’s works are both premonitory and transformational and his desire is that his works can be used as spiritual devices for self-activation to instill a sense of purposeness and optimism.
CV:
EXHIBITIONS:
2018. Studio E Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2017 Project Art Space, New York, New York
2014 Flock Gallery, Manchester, NH
National Arts Program Annual Exhibtion, Manchester NH
2013 PURE FLIGHT. Soo Rye Yoo Gallery, Rye NH
National Arts Program Annual Exhibition, Manchester NH
AWARDS / HONORS:
2016 First Place. Professional Category, National Art Program Annual Exhibition
2015 First Place. Professional Category, National Art Program Annual Exhibition
2014 Best In Show. National Arts Program Annual Exhibition
Second Place. Biennial, New Hampshire Institute of Art
PUBLICATIONS:
2018 August, Seattle Times
2013 March, New England ArtScope